Inside engineering, the three
human crew members watched as their glimpse outside vanished, the transparent aluminum distorting and blackening as the projectiles embedded and detonated.
"Ancestors, what is it doing?" the woman inside recoiled from Jun's violence, their own door terminal lighting up with warning signs as the big ox blasted apart its counterpart on her side.
"I don't - she's shooting something?" one of the two men realized, the faint, dull thumps of her gun muffled by the armored door.
"S-she's getting closer!" As though to emphasize the danger they were all in, the steady click-click-clicks of the motion sensor were interrupted with a shrill whine that only grew louder and louder. Floating through zero-g, the woman clambered for the engineering air vent, hands wrenching the cover off as the cheap stamped steel sheet gave way.
"I'm getting out of h - " Poking her helmeted head into the vent, her ears felt like she had suddenly been dunked underwater, the sounds muffling away to an eerie silence. Headlights automatically turning on, she saw the shaft in front of her writhe and worm as Jun's therm-optic camouflage tried to hide her oncoming approach from the engineer's ever widening eyes. Wen meanwhile, lined up his shots.
"You idiot, get d - " The bubble-like helmet of the first crew member suddenly painted itself red from the inside out as a hole appeared in the visor, the Ox-man's follow up shot knocking the body aside even more in the zero-g before the last of the triple-tap brained the unsuited companion. His yellow hard-hat spiraled into the air with a "Shit!" before Wen rounded the corner and fired again. Another shot rang out, the armor piercing magnum flipping through the space between them as flecks of unburned powder bounced off his helmet. Fortunately, it was the hull that took the hit, and not him. Up ahead however, was his prize - the bridge.
Only, its armored doors were shut too.
"Hey! I'm not a hor - " Hoshiko briefly paused in their virtuality.
"I'm not roaring like a horny tiger!" she quickly corrected herself, cheeks puffing up at her sister in indignity. She put a lot of effort into that roar too! Not that it mattered - in meatspace, Koyama could hear another, more important cry. This one, of fear.
"Oh noooo!" Shots rang out as several of the arcade machines became perforated by panicked fire, the rounds going wide of the dragon princess. The fragments drifting around the space was more of a problem to her at this rate, especially if they bounced off her and gave her away. Unfortunately for this 'Liáo Ruì', Koyama figured from the
system, this human was unlikely to have any better aim even if the princess was in plain sight. Eighteen years of age was not much time for a human to work on that, let alone a social studies grad! From her 'hidden' spot, Koyama could make out....struggling? Flailing?
"Aww, Wen got to the bridge first!" the tiger princess whined, if only a little. Crossing her arms, she sighed as a few more rounds were popped off in meatspace.
"The signs say there's life-supp - " Hoshiko stopped cold as one of the doors slammed closed, the bridge crew trying their best to keep her away!
"Ugh, rude. Seriously though, do I try and vent them all, or just go help you out," she looked at Wen.
"Getting the bridge is the original plan, but if they're stuck on a console trying to keep me out, with Koyama poking at them too, that means someone's on the computer. Maybe more than one," the tiger princess pointed out.
Even as she said this though, the fire suppression system flashed a warning at Koyama - if it went off in the arcade, the gas would render her visible!